Planned energy efficiency measures that would reduce the current demand for heat and/or power.

Planned changes to the business, the building or the occupancy that will increase or reduce energy demand.

For example, in a sports centre, is a swimming pool planned? In a hotel, will the fabric of the building be insulated, or will double-glazing be installed? For any business, will the staff numbers grow?

Don’t guess watt

Forecasting energy demand is not an exact science, but you should leave as little as possible to pure estimation. Success with a CHP project depends on the sizing. Many CHP installations are oversized because the energy demand profile has not been assessed properly. To get the full benefits of CHP, the unit needs to run all day every day, and all the power and heat produced has to be fully utilised.

Ideally, the demand information would be based on heat and power consumption measured every hour for one year. Annual or monthly electricity and gas meter make no allowance for seasonal variations, particularly in heat. So get as close as possible to hourly or even half-hourly consumption figures.

Electricity usage profiles can be obtained by looking at half hour meter data from your electricity supplier. Heat usage profiles are more difficult to assess, so you may need to utilise some temporary metering. Monthly fuel bills will indicate some degree of seasonal variation. For weekly and daily profiles it is important to understand the operating pattern of the building and to add to that a short-term monitoring exercise or audit.

Loads to think about

Once you have established the demand profiles you can calculate the electricity and heat baseloads for the building - the levels below which the site electrical and heat demand seldom fall.

The useful output from a CHP gas engine is typically about 40% electricity, 45% heat. From the current and projected demands of the building and the business, you need to establish whether the CHP sizing will be based on the electricity or heat demand.

A heat led sizing will meet the site’s heat demands. It may produce surplus electricity that can be exported or leave a need for top-up power. The economics of exporting power then becomes a priority issue. A power-led sizing could produce excess wasted heat, so it may be worth considering a smaller unit.

Once a CHP unit has been sized on a current heat to power ratio, considerations of the future need to include an assessment of how the heat-to-power ratio of the building’s demand might change over time. Then you need to plan for it.

Start determining demands by downloading your free eGuide: CHP project planning: How to determine site heat and power demands

Ian Hopkins is a technical sales professional and business leader with more than 15 years’ experience in delivering energy efficiency projects and strategy in Europe and the United States. Ian currently heads up the Sales and Marketing function as one of the board directors at ENER-G Combined Power Ltd.